Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1887-02-05
LIFETIME CORRECTIONS.

made, even after the proofs are all
corrected, revised and finally
wrought off, Last week the type
made US say Louis" for LEO, and
Kelly" for KELLEY. Had the MIS-
takes occurred in " Leone's" column,
the printer would have heard from
her ere now; but in our own case
we'll leave him off mildly, knowing
by experience the trials and tribula-
tions of the printers tease" fully as
well as those of an EDITORS life.
Life in general reminds us of a
proof-slip. When we are eighteen or
twenty and begin to see the follies of
youth and realize the time nisspent,
we say with the apostle, when / was
a boy l acted like boy, now Pm a
man and will act accordingly. Ten
years more pass by and as we look
back the mistakes seem greater and
more numerous than those of child
hood years. At mild-life we begin
anew, trusting to long and hopeful
/ future; but, alas three-score years
meet US quickly with the sad admoni-
tions of passing time, and sitting by
the fireside of departing life we live
our days over again in memory's fit
full company. Signs over the past
come from the depth of the heart;
energy and ambition, pride and pas
sion, are gone; and in the best spent
life there are many things that might
have been done, and many more bet
ter left undone, in the light of the
souls last farewell, on the eve of its
journey to eternity.
Every day is a proof-sheet in the
life of man, and generally everybody
else looks over it and marks the errors
but ourselves. Individual self is al
ways hoping and expecting to do bet
ter. and piles up proof-sheets, one
after another, for year, for ten years,
until the Foreman of the Journal of
Time calls for final revise, and in
sorrow and regret we cast mournful
glance over its crumbled pages and
hurry on into the vast realms of the
Unknown.
Few printers have clean proof-sheets,
and everyday life is the same. In spite
CT multiplied experience mistakes
creep in all our actions, and whatever
we do or do not do, or however we do
do, there is fault in somebody's eyes,
for as no man is justified in the sight
of the Lord so no person can walk
blameless in world in which critics
are superintendent. Two topics keep
up the conversational world, the
weather and gossip about other peo-
pie. When we have nothing to do we
talk, and where there is much talk
there is little wisdom and much folly,
whether it's on the street corner or in
the parlor, on the legislative floor or
in the pulpit.
AS the most perfect revise is not
without fault or blemish, so IS the
most perfect life not without some
mistakes. There is no statesman who
has not held some views but what
failed in the test of time and expert
ence; no general whose moves were
always at the right time and in the
right direction no orator to say the
right thing always in the right place;
no preacher to preach the right doc
trine in season and tho individu-
al perfection, high or low, in any age,
Christ alone excepted as model for
all mankind, and His Mother as the
highest type of motherhood. Nor
have we record ofany two men or any
two women ever agreeing in all things.
We are astonished in reading the lives
of Our early statesmen and early min
listers to find that they not only dis
agreed, but that their opposition often
equaled that of the Camden political
kickers and Andover theological hair
splitters of our day.
Men think differently, act different
ly, do things differently, and no two
see the same thing alike. With all
respect we say that there are many
things in the lives of the saints, mill
tant and triumphant, that seem to us
ridiculous, inconsistent and not exact.
ly according to gospel rule ;-militant
are the householders who lecture
their servants daily upon the necessi-
ty of obedience, charity and brother
| ly-love, but who themselves quarrel
the whole year round with every old
woman in reach.
We would not condemn those who
do not practice what they preach, for
they may be doing conscientiously
what they think is right. There is
delicate point, though, at this juno
ture, which we would pass much as
we get by a haunted place: notice
those quibblers of perfection, those
fault-finders of the hour, those exemp-
lars of christian life, whether appoint
ed of God, chosen by man or self
selected,-how sensitive they are, how
touchy their dignity, how electric
their pride, how on needles their feel
ings! they literally live in glass hous-
es. All. me; they seem to be hu-
man; really they look like it, they
act like it,-THEY ARE.
A printers daily life is a continual
picking up of that which is down, and
constant throwing down of that
which is up; and after the greatest
care, patience and watchfulness,-
learning by heart hundreds of boxes
in which the type are kept, thousands